Day 08
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I only stop for one picture before Anchorage, (#01) although all of the ride is spectacular...getting to the point where if I let myself, this would be full of nothing but mountain shots. We drive all the way through Anchorage by 11:00am, treat the kids to McDonalds - although I thought Kim was gonna reach across and throttle the stupid bastard who took our order for screwing it up so badly. Just south of Anchorage we swung into whats known as Turnagain Arm...named for Captain Cook, coming up the coast looking for the Northwest Passage, found it a dead end and had to "turn-around-again"... and drove next to the southern tip of the Chugach Mountains and Turnagain arm in a little strip of flat land that was beautiful. Turnagain Arm heads out into Cook Inlet, which heads out to the Pacific ocean. Everywhere we've looked this entire 1000mi+ trip, so far, we've seen nothing but mountains covered in snow.
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We stopped at one point to wait for whats known as a Bore Tide...where the tide is especially low and the moon is right, the incoming tide into Turnagain arm can rush in in a wave up to 6 feet high...today's Bore Tide was only about 6 inches, but interesting to watch as the mud flats were slowly covered with a wash of water rather than the slow incoming tide.
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Pictures #11 - 21 are of the Crow Creek Mine property built in the late 1800's to mine gold out of Crow Creek, one of the richest mining operations of it's time. Today they let you tour the grounds kept up much like it was then, and pan for gold in either the sluiceway they've constructed for you or head down to the creek to do it the old-fashioned way. We did both. I struck up a conversation with Justin from NJ who came over to give Kelsey a few pointers on panning. He is up here for 6 weeks with a friend who pans here quite often, and has the equipment to prove it...
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Ultimately we find a dozen or so flakes, not much to write home about....uhhhhh.....hmmm, I suppose I just did. They place it in a vial for ya and smile and take your $8... even without the gold, the tour was really nice. Located just outside of Girdwood, Alaska, I'd recommend a visit.
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That little speck on the sandbar above is our first Bald Eagle, although I am told there will be plenty on the Kenai Penninsula, we just had to stop and take it's picture. Pics #29 - 31 is on the tramway to the top of the mountain at Alyeska Resort near Girdwood. a 4 minute ride in a gondola gives you spectacular views of Turnagain Arm and parts of the Historic Ididarod Trail. (#30)
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(Pics 32 - 34) is where we had dinner tonight in Girdwood, at the Chair 5 Restaurant...great place to hang for a drink (I had a couple Moose Drools, a Micro-Brew out of Montana)and shoot some pool waiting for dinner.
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After leaving Girdwood, we load up the Mini-van and head onto the Kenai Penninsula, still surrounded by snow-capped peaks on all sides. Pics #36 and 37 are of the Motel we stopped at - The Kenai Lake Motel. I've written to Sandy and Cameron, the owners, several times on the web in setting this up - real nice folks. We settle on a cabin for tonight cause we're just sleeping here on our way to Homer...but we come back here in 4 days to fish for Salmon, and we'll get a cabin for the kids and a room for Kim and I. I'll write more about the place on that return trip. I hang on the front porch (check out the view in Pic #38!) talking to Sandy about her place...and she mentions I can grab a cup of coffee and hook into the net at the Tackle shop at 6am when they open in the morning, so I am in the cabin tonight finishing this up and will upload it in the morning before we leave for Homer. All in all another excellent day. We've stopped taking pictures of the mountains - got hundreds of shots and more to come I'm sure... we did get a real close shot of a moose with one antler, but it was blurry as hell.....there'll be more!
See ya tomorrow!
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